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Saoirse Hanley: A borrowed keyboard and Taylor Swift are saving me from wasting my life doom scrolling

I am a perfectionist who hates perfecting a skill. I want to be amazing at everything I try, but if I have to, well, try to get to that point, it’s game over. That very contradiction is what led me to give up playing piano after the eight years I spent learning as a child. I loved bashing out a tune on the keys, but the weeks-long process of learning to play a piece used to drive me spare.

"I’m still getting used to being bad at piano. I’m trying to remind myself that 11-year-old me was only able to practise so much because she didn’t have a life, the loser." Photo: Getty I am a perfectionist who hates perfecting a skill.

I want to be amazing at everything I try, but if I have to, well, try to get to that point, it’s game over. That very contradiction is what led me to give up playing piano after the eight years I spent learning as a child. I loved bashing out a tune on the keys, but the weeks-long process of learning to play a piece used to drive me spare.

It followed me through college — I tried a new language every semester, from Italian to Spanish to Russian, but never made it past beginner level. Why? I wasn’t as good as I was at French or Irish, understandably, since they were two languages I had been learning for years. Join the Irish Independent WhatsApp channel Stay up to date with all the latest news.